Developers react to iOS 7 and being “Sherlocked” at WWDC 2013

Ars talked to the crowd on the WWDC showfloor.

SAN FRANCISCO—The unveilings of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks at Monday's Worldwide Developers Conference were anything but boring to Apple's developer community. Following the keynote, where Apple CEO Tim Cook and other executives took to the stage to show off the company's upcoming software products, buzz about the brand new OSes was high among the 5,000+ developers in attendance.

But while the new mobile and desktop features—not to mention a long-awaited update to the Mac Pro line—certainly got people talking, iOS 7 appeared to dominate the conversations. So I asked a number of developers, both in person and online, for their thoughts on Monday's announcements.

New features for some, miniature American flags for others

"As a developer, I cannot wait for automatic updates," Zak Dillon of Dillon Software told Ars. "Coordinating with our back-end team to make backwards compatible Web services is an unnecessary pain. It will be nice to have everything synced up, like when we deploy a Web application...As a human being, I love Control Center. Seems like one of the most useful features since multitasking in iOS 4."

iOS developer Darshan Shankar wholeheartedly agreed about Apple's addition of automatic app updates. "Many 1-star app ratings and customer confusion [are] caused by using outdated apps that no longer work," he said. "This will hopefully reduce that problem. Secondly, this will allow developers to iterate much faster and push bug fixes to their users easily."

Auto-updates were only the beginning. Kyle Baxter, iOS developer behind Basil, took a liking to AirDrop coming to iOS: "Being able to share things directly to another person from any application is going to be incredibly convenient."

Two Tap Labs partner Shawn Wall had hoped to see more about iOS integration in the auto industry but felt optimistic about what he saw on stage. "In my opinion the most intriguing and inventive plan today was taking iOS to the auto industry. Details weren't exactly provided, but this could be the first integration point of several in the future and also hints at a much wider relative design pattern (super-autolayout, à la Android) that could be utilized by developers," Wall said. "In addition, what other types of hardware could we developers also possibly be developing for in the future?"

Float Mobile Learning's Dan Pfeiffer added that the ability to better multitask in the background on iOS would help out his enterprise users. "The new multitasking abilities are especially exciting because it means our apps are able to provide our users with the data they need when they want it," Pfeiffer told Ars. "For our enterprise clients, the new per-app VPN capabilities are great because they will allow [the clients] to secure enterprise apps with an infrastructure they may already have in place."

Face-off over UI

While there was plenty to like about iOS 7's new feature set, the operating system's new look ended up being a controversial one among the developer crowd.

Of course, there were some who welcomed something new, no matter how extreme. Buster developer Chris Cieslak claimed he "loved pretty much everything" he saw presented about iOS 7. "Some people will probably complain that parts of 7, especially notifications and the Control Center, are playing catch-up to Android, but so what?" Cieslak said. "If I had to pick one, I love the fact that almost everything changed visually, as iOS was getting a little stale."

Kyle Baxter also weighed in on the new look, but declined to decide just yet whether it was good or bad for developers. "I'm still wrapping my mind around the new interface so I don't have much to say there yet about whether that's a negative (obviously it's going to be a lot of work), but man—what a radical change," Baxter said.

Indeed, iOS 7's "gratuitous use of white space" (as described by Dillon) and lack of borders around many of its buttons was seen as both visually pleasing but difficult for outsiders to work with. "I can see where this could cause problems with less design-oriented developers. It was worth the risk, though. Fair play to Apple for raising the bar for us developers and designers," Zak Dillon said.

But a number of those we spoke to disagreed that simply "raising the bar" for designers was a good direction to go. "Being a huge proponent of flat design, so far I'm disappointed by what I've seen in iOS7. The icons are simply poor and amateur, as their interior contents are much too large for their containers, and the new font feels very forced in certain scenarios throughout the Apple provided applications," Shawn Wall told Ars.

"With no edge definition and no contrast, users may not realize that something is clickable," Darshan Shankar added.

Justin Williams, developer and founder of SecondGear, was among the most vocal about iOS 7's UI. "I do not like the new user interface. I think they swung too far in the opposite direction just to prove that they could do something different. Look at those buttons—what is even going on there?" Williams told Ars. He did, however, remain optimistic about Apple eventually finding a balance. "I think in another year, they'll swing back a bit and end up somewhere in the middle."

You've been Sherlocked. (The support group meets at the bar.)

It's not a WWDC if someone's software isn't "Sherlocked"—a phenomenon that involves Apple integrating (or sometimes flat-out copying) features from popular third-party software into its own, leaving those developers to figure out how to move forward without losing business.

Last year, it was Marco Arment's Instapaper (now owned by Betaworks) being copied as Apple's "Reading List" in Safari, and OmniGroup's task management app OmniFocus getting presented as Apple's then-new app, Reminders. At the time, both OmniGroup CEO Ken Case and Arment remained optimistic that their apps would continue to serve their users well despite Apple's "flattery."

This year, at least two companies saw some of their most prominent features make an appearance in iOS 7, though their reactions to the announcements were mixed.

Third-party mail app Mailbox, whose users had to go through a weeks-long wait to begin using it upon launch earlier this year, saw its popular swipe gestures mirrored in Apple's own Mail app for iOS 7. Mailbox likes to treat the inbox like a to-do list or task bucket, allowing users to swipe left or right in order to prioritize, delete, or mark messages for review when they're cleaning out their e-mail. Apple briefly demoed functionality in Mail that practically mirrored Mailbox's features, but when asked, Mailbox declined to comment.

Another major feature introduced to Safari on both iOS and OS X was iCloud Keychain: essentially a password manager that's integrated into the browser and syncs passwords across devices using iCloud. Think it sounds a lot like 1Password from Agilebits? So did I. 1Password had become popular on the Mac and, in recent years, expanded its service to the iOS realm. But with Apple offering a strikingly similar feature set for iCloud Keychain to its entire Mac and iOS user base—and for free, at that—I couldn't help but wonder what Agilebits thought.

Agilebits "Herald" (and former Ars contributor) David Chartier maintained an air of enthusiasm about Apple's announcement. "Better security is a win for everyone, and this is a validation of our message and what we've been building with 1Password for over half a decade. Now, If people are worried about [what] Apple's announcements mean for 1Password, ask Pocket and Dropbox how they’re doing after Reading List and iCloud," Chartier told Ars.

Chartier went on to argue that 1Password "isn't just a password manager for one browser" like iCloud Keychain will be (Keychain is only functional in Safari). "1Password supports multiple browsers and platforms, multiple accounts at each site, and it secures so much more than passwords and even credit cards," he said. "Perhaps more importantly, 1Password puts you in control of your data and where it goes. Out of the box, your data stays local on your machine until you choose to enable a cloud service like Dropbox or iCloud (on iOS now, Mac soon). We also have a USB sync solution for users who don't want their data in the cloud, but we're free to add more cloud sync services down the road."

Agilebits' reaction largely mirrors that of Case and Arment from 2012, and it's likely that most of the company's user base will continue to use the software despite iCloud Keychain. Still, Sherlocked companies must be concerned on some level about what Apple's future plans might be; the pressure's now on to stay a few steps ahead of Apple at all times.

Jacqui Cheng
Jacqui is an Editor at Large at Ars Technica, where she has spent the last eight years writing about Apple culture, gadgets, social networking, privacy, and more. Emailjacqui@arstechnica.com//Twitter@eJacqui

As a happy 1Password user, I don't envision myself switching to iCloud Keychain anytime soon. The functionality appears to be a limited subset of that of 1Password, it's not as cross-platform (I don't own the other versions, but I could always buy it in the future if I needed to), and there's the major question of how secure it is. While they mentioned encryption... who holds the encryption keys? Is it secured with just your regular Keychain password? Does Apple hold a copy of the decryption key? Especially in light of the whole NSA copying all your data thing, giving them easy access to your passwords seems like a poor decision.

Quote:

Chartier went on to argue that 1Password "isn't just a password manager for one browser" like iCloud Keychain will be (Keychain is only functional in Safari).

I'm not sure exactly what is synced or if things change with 'iCould Keychain', but Chrome appears to now use OS X's keychain, using the same logins as Safari (if granted permission). I'd assume that'd kinda mean that "iCloud Keychain" isn't entirely Safari only... just OS X and iOS-Safari only.

Will the password store work with Windows nicely? If not, then 1Password still has a rather big advantage. Wish they'd have better Linux support though.

Considering Safari for Windows appears to be largely discontinued, it seems quite doubtful that there will be any support at all.

On the other hand, Microsoft appears to have introduced a similar feature with Windows 8 (a lot of your settings, which I'm fairly certain includes your passwords, are synced across any account on a Trusted Computer that uses your Live account).

I'm not abandoning 1Password in for a while... The iCloud keychain is awesome and I'm gonna use it, but I use 1Password for multiplatform and for storing all the software licenses I have, mostly from bundles... as it already syncs via iCloud or Dropbox (i'm very fine for now)... Though I will probably start using the keychain thingy more if they expand functionality.

Is it still locked down to the point that I can't even switch the keyboard without jailbreaking? If not, then I'm still not interested.

Don't get me wrong, it's nice to see iOS catching up to some of Android's features, but the keyboard thing is an absolute deal breaker for me. I really hate the stock keyboards in both Android and iOS, but at least Android lets me change it (and does so without having to root the device).

Is it still locked down to the point that I can't even switch the keyboard without jailbreaking? If not, then I'm still not interested.

Don't get me wrong, it's nice to see iOS catching up to some of Android's features, but the keyboard thing is an absolute deal breaker for me. I really hate the stock keyboards in both Android and iOS, but at least Android lets me change it (and does so without having to root the device).

I don't think I will ever understand the obsession with alternative keyboards. Personally all the stock keyboards are essentially the same to me.

Swapping out hardware keyboards I get, some people like mechanical ones, others like soft type ones, maybe lower profile or macro keys and whatnot.

On the other hand, Microsoft appears to have introduced a similar feature with Windows 8 (a lot of your settings, which I'm fairly certain includes your passwords, are synced across any account on a Trusted Computer that uses your Live account).

Reading List and Reminders provide only the most basic of functionality. Pocket and (especially) OmniFocus are far more powerful. While Reading List and Reminders are good enough for plenty of users, there are plenty of others who quickly outgrow them. Ditto for Notes vs. Evernote and iCloud storage vs. Dropbox.

I expect iCloud's password management will have a similar story against 1Password. For some users, yes it will be good enough, and it will be a substantial improvement over their current system (of nothing). For plenty of others, though, its limitations will quickly become an issue, and 1Password will be the upgrade path.

Automatic updates will prove disastrous. Developers have profoundly demonstrated that from time to time, a certain number of app updates are broken on delivery - essentially bricking the app updated. Let's say the Omni Group pushed out a defective update of OmniFocus. The consequences could wind up being far more severe with automatic updating than without it. Also, updates frequently incorporate changes (sometimes features are added; sometimes they are taken away). The user will have apps changed 'presto', without warning of any kind to expect altered behavior or actions unless developers always explicitly notify users in detail. Even if developers incorporate extensive tutorials and other aids to acclimate users to the "new" app, what if they don't have the time to deal with this the next time they tap that app's icon. Maybe they are in a meeting or need a must-have scan of a business card. They don't need or want these surprises at awkward moments.

Is it still locked down to the point that I can't even switch the keyboard without jailbreaking? If not, then I'm still not interested.

Don't get me wrong, it's nice to see iOS catching up to some of Android's features, but the keyboard thing is an absolute deal breaker for me. I really hate the stock keyboards in both Android and iOS, but at least Android lets me change it (and does so without having to root the device).

I don't think I will ever understand the obsession with alternative keyboards. Personally all the stock keyboards are essentially the same to me.

Obsession? Do you mean "interest in improving your typing speed and accuracy by installing third party apps improving on stock"? So much of what we do on a smartphone is typing, it's important. Personally I use stock (Android) now, but last year there was a huge difference between e.g. Swiftkey and the then stock keyboard, and it meant a world of difference whenever you had to type something.

I find it incredibly galling that Apple is in court suing Samsung for copying their product when Apple turns around and copies apps from their ecosystem. Its so prevalent that it even is known by a name "Sherlocking". Pot, meet kettle.

Is it still locked down to the point that I can't even switch the keyboard without jailbreaking? If not, then I'm still not interested.

Don't get me wrong, it's nice to see iOS catching up to some of Android's features, but the keyboard thing is an absolute deal breaker for me. I really hate the stock keyboards in both Android and iOS, but at least Android lets me change it (and does so without having to root the device).

I don't think I will ever understand the obsession with alternative keyboards. Personally all the stock keyboards are essentially the same to me.

Swapping out hardware keyboards I get, some people like mechanical ones, others like soft type ones, maybe lower profile or macro keys and whatnot.

You really don't think swype based keyboards aren't different from stock??

Will the password store work with Windows nicely? If not, then 1Password still has a rather big advantage. Wish they'd have better Linux support though.

Nope. Doesn't work with Android either.

Or any browser other than safari in an up-to-date mac+iOS7 only support? So, yeah, 1Password has very little to fear. In all probability, this is a win for them. Free frustration press when they try to sync other devices.

Some will pony up for a new ipad/iphone over the updates. Most will hold onto the --extremely high priced-- devices they currently have.

Automatic updates will prove disastrous. Developers have profoundly demonstrated that from time to time, a certain number of app updates are broken on delivery - essentially bricking the app updated. Let's say the Omni Group pushed out a defective update of OmniFocus. The consequences could wind up being far more severe with automatic updating than without it. Also, updates frequently incorporate changes (sometimes features are added; sometimes they are taken away). The user will have apps changed 'presto', without warning of any kind to expect altered behavior or actions unless developers always explicitly notify users in detail. Even if developers incorporate extensive tutorials and other aids to acclimate users to the "new" app, what if they don't have the time to deal with this the next time they tap that app's icon. Maybe they are in a meeting or need a must-have scan of a business card. They don't need or want these surprises at awkward moments.

I'll bet 99% of users fall into two categories:

1) Never bother updating, but only because the didn't bother... not because it was on purpose.

2) Update as soon as they notice there's a new version.

That leaves 1% that check to see the features and make sure no one else is having problems before they update. And most of the "update right away" crowd probably doesn't bother to try the app after the update. They just hit the update button, and then are just as surprised the next time they use the app as they would have been if it had been automatically updated.

TL;DR: Your worries do not reflect the use pattern of any but a few users.

Is it still locked down to the point that I can't even switch the keyboard without jailbreaking? If not, then I'm still not interested.

Don't get me wrong, it's nice to see iOS catching up to some of Android's features, but the keyboard thing is an absolute deal breaker for me. I really hate the stock keyboards in both Android and iOS, but at least Android lets me change it (and does so without having to root the device).

I don't think I will ever understand the obsession with alternative keyboards. Personally all the stock keyboards are essentially the same to me.

Swapping out hardware keyboards I get, some people like mechanical ones, others like soft type ones, maybe lower profile or macro keys and whatnot.

You really don't think swype based keyboards aren't different from stock??

He's clearly just thinking about alternate keyboards that move the key caps around, not the ones that change functionality entirely (like swype).

EDIT: I'm not saying it's appropriate to ignore swype and others that fully change functionality. Just thought I'd point out what looks like a different understanding of what's going on.

…allowing users to swipe left or right in order to prioritize, delete, or mark messages for review when they're cleaning out their e-mail. Apple briefly demoed functionality in Mail that practically mirrored Mailbox's features, but when asked, Mailbox declined to comment.

Sherlock intro'd a brand new class of functionality to the Mac OS. Very cool for its time. And of course, Apple's implementation of it is (now) so slick that it hardly resembles the original.

You're noticing that a couple of gestures in Mailbox happen to resemble the approximately tenth iteration of Mail. And that those gestures happen to fit in with the previous directions that Mail has been evolving.

I'm not sure what the alternative is to what you're seeing. Apple is supposed to freeze all products at 1.0, while other OS's adopt some of the conventions that people find handy? This article seems to need the little reminder that we gave to our kids when they were five: “life isn't fair.” They seem to have found their way. I'm sure others will, too.

Automatic updates will prove disastrous. Developers have profoundly demonstrated that from time to time, a certain number of app updates are broken on delivery - essentially bricking the app updated. Let's say the Omni Group pushed out a defective update of OmniFocus. The consequences could wind up being far more severe with automatic updating than without it. Also, updates frequently incorporate changes (sometimes features are added; sometimes they are taken away). The user will have apps changed 'presto', without warning of any kind to expect altered behavior or actions unless developers always explicitly notify users in detail. Even if developers incorporate extensive tutorials and other aids to acclimate users to the "new" app, what if they don't have the time to deal with this the next time they tap that app's icon. Maybe they are in a meeting or need a must-have scan of a business card. They don't need or want these surprises at awkward moments.

I'll bet 99% of users fall into two categories:

1) Never bother updating, but only because the didn't bother... not because it was on purpose.

2) Update as soon as they notice there's a new version.

Exactly. I suspect there's probably a switch in Settings somewhere to turn automatic updates off (just like you can with iCloud services, etc.), so for those who really do want to "manage" updates, they can turn it off and it'll work just like before. The key is that it'll be ON by default, which will be a huge boon to ordinary users.

It'll be just like Gatekeeper in OS X: the default behavior (only run signed apps and apps from the store) is so much better for regular users, while "power" users can dial it down if they need to.

Really we are getting stock functionality that users have shown they heavily want through seeking out apps (flashlight and 1Password) and rooting (stuff like the control panel).

But, like reminders and notes, they are focused on usability at a fundamental level to be immediately beneficial to most of its users. Furthermore, they match the overall user experience and can leverage and even highlight the advantage the rest of the Apple technologies like iCloud.

It may even pave a nicer path for users to seek out more functionality from apps as the article reminds us.

It's practically win-win in most cases I can think of.

flashlight apps will have the hardest time, I'm guessing. Flashing on and off or S.O.S. may not be enough to get people excited.

I currently run Twitter 4.3 on my iPad rather than the new version, so unless this gets disabled on an app by app basis I am in trouble.

It is virtually impossible to imagine that your only two choices are (i) update all apps automatically and (ii) never update any app, even manually. I believe your worst-case scenario is that you would have to manage updating apps exactly how you do today (except that the default will be 'auto update', so you'll have to turn that off).

You might have to also back up your Twitter app before upgrading, in case it goes and does an auto update before giving you time to change the default.

The first ten minutes really hurt my eyes, I feel like I wanna puke at some point after setting up the iPhone etc. However, after an hour or two, I start to dig its new UI. I think Apple has set a great foundation for the future of iOS, yes iOS 7 is not perfect whatsoever. I can see Apple trying to build a bridge between current and the future.

Unfortunately, you can't change anything on control centre, but you can turn off automatic updates. I'm gonna miss share widget, love AirDrop, love the parallax thingy, Music app still unable to delete songs individually after downloaded from iTunes Match and there is no Download All in the playlist (hope the final version fixed this!).

The UI looks like a weird kind of flat and for unknown reason, I typed better with iOS 7 keyboard (key animation a bit different, perhaps?)

I live by developing iOS apps, but "sherlocked" thing just does not make sense for me, I mean, they do "steal" basic features from 3rd party apps, but they're doing it after the apps being out for like 2-3 years. So, I think it's good Apple did those kind of steal because as a customer, I want to see those apps being improved and not just stay in App Store limbo or merely making any advancement feature wise.

Can they not inovate for themselves without having to resort to stealing everyone elses ideas? Bunch of hypocritical pricks. This is just going to start a whole new round of patent infringement suits.

Apple is hardly alone in this. And, without wanting to be harsh, it is up to developers to produce alternatives that are better, or address needs that aren't covered by Apple's own, and those of their other competitors on the App store. On my iPad I don't use any of the supplied apps or utilities other than Safari, instead installing alternatives that are better or do things differently, more aligned with my requirements. I do the same thing on my GNex.

Also, there are absolutely tonnes of apps that compete directly with Apple's supplied options on the App store. They haven't removed those. Why would they start doing it now?

Can they not inovate for themselves without having to resort to stealing everyone elses ideas? Bunch of hypocritical pricks. This is just going to start a whole new round of patent infringement suits.

Apple is hardly alone in this. And, without wanting to be harsh, it is up to developers to produce alternatives that are better, or address needs that aren't covered by Apple's own, and those of their other competitors on the App store. On my iPad I don't use any of the supplied apps or utilities other than Safari, instead installing alternatives that are better or do things differently, more aligned with my requirements. I do the same thing on my GNex.

Also, there are absolutely tonnes of apps that compete directly with Apple's supplied options on the App store. They haven't removed those. Why would they start doing it now?

I feel more sympathy for developers that provided innovative solutions (like Watson and Konfabulator, back in the day). I don't feel a lot of sympathy for flashlight app developers, for instance. They fulfilled a need in the market, but it hardly required innovation, and they could have expected Apple to eventually provide the function built-in. That came out harsh, but I'm not sure exactly how to re-word it. I don't mean to imply anything negative about flashlight app developers. I merely mean that you can always expect OS developers to add features. Especially simple/obvious features. The more simple/obvious the features, the more likely the OS developer will eventually implement it. So a developer building such features ahead of the OS developer should expect to eventually be obsoleted. Since the developer should be expecting it, I shouldn't feel particularly sorry for them when it happens.